Hello Type Friends!; Proxima Super Nova; Elliot & Jake’s Web Font Survey 2024

We should be back on schedule Wednesday.

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TL;DR

(This is an AI-generated summary of today’s Drop using Sonnet via Perplexity.)

Here’s a concise three-bullet summary of the blog post:

• “Hello Type Friends!” is a semi-monthly podcast hosted by Elliot Jay Stocks, featuring casual conversations with typography professionals. It offers insights into the lives and work of type designers, lettering artists, and creatives passionate about typography. [https://hellotypefriends.com/]
• Proxima Nova, a popular typeface, has been reimagined as Proxima Nova Supernova by creator Mark Simonson. This update expands the family from 48 to 144 styles, offering 16 weights, three width variants, and improved letterforms for enhanced flexibility and readability. [https://proximasupernova.marksimonson.com/]
• Elliot Jay Stocks and Jake Giktsoff are conducting a brief survey to gather information on web font usage and learning sources. They encourage participation to help assess the current state of web typography. [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpAZOWQ1O0pDIhD4QmVVV7c9fp8Vb_Os-bu4OCxasKrbR2hQ/viewform]

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Hello Type Friends!

Sure, typography is a visual thing, but we can learn about typography in many different ways, including podcasts! Audio is my go-to genre for catching up on news and non-technical info.

“Hello, type friends!” is a podcast hosted by Elliot Jay Stocks, a prominent figure in the typography and design world known for his work with Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, and 8 Faces (we’ll cover that soon). Typographers tend to pour their very being into their work; so, it can be illuminating to be a fly on the wall as Elliot sits down with friends/colleagues and gives us a peek into the lives and work of those talented type designers, lettering artists, illustrators, authors, and other creatives who share his passion for typography.

The format of the show is pretty casual and most definitely unscripted. The discussions with each guest touch on various aspects of their lives, work, and any other topics that naturally arise during their chat. You will absolutely feel like you’re (legally) eavesdropping on a conversation between friends.

It’s on what I’d describe as a “semi-monthly” schedule, and the back catalog is small enough to crank through in a few days.

NOTE: A few episodes are marked “E” (as I think folks know I tend to avoid such content, but this was on the more casual level of lazy swearing).

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Proxima Super Nova

Proxima Nova is one of the most popular and versatile typefaces in modern design. You see it everywhere! Recently, this trusty typeface has received a significant update; it’s so big that Mark Simonson, the creator of this font family — has re-introduced it as Proxima Nova Supernova. It’s a complete reimagining of the OG Proxima Nova family. This new version expands the original from 48 styles to a bonkers 144 styles, giving us an unprecedented level of flexibility and creative control.

The font now offers 16 weights, ranging from Thin to Black, with corresponding italics. This extensive range allows for more nuanced typography and better visual hierarchy in designs.

It also includes three width variants: Normal, Condensed, and Extra Condensed. This addition lets us optimize space usage while maintaining readability across various applications.

Simonson has meticulously refined the letterforms, improving consistency and readability across all weights and sizes. This attention to detail means that Proxima Nova Supernova maintains its clarity and effectiveness in both print and digital media (and on my middle-of-the road ultrawide monitor that is not the best when it comes to resolution).

And, the new version includes advanced OpenType features such as stylistic alternates, contextual alternates, and expanded language support, making it a more powerful tool for global typography.

It’s not free (I mean, all that work takes time and skill, so it should not really be a surprise), but there may be a few Drop readers who carve out some spare coin each year to acquire a new commercial font.

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Elliot & Jake’s Web Font Survey 2024

Elliot (from section one) and his pal Jake Giktsoff were wondering where most folks get their web fonts these days, and also where folks learn about web fonts?

They have a very short survey that you should carve 2 minutes out for to help them out so they can let us know the state of the typegeist (i know, cringe-pun).

FIN

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